4 nights in Guadalajara at Expo

In Guadalajara staying at the Hilton across from the Expo for 4 days - a lumber buying expo! - suggestions please! Good food, good wine, good value. Have looked at a lot of the posts for Guadalajara, but don't know the areas so don't know what is within walking distance. 3 nights will be with a colleague who's food tastes are much less sophisticated. Sunday night on my own - maybe even do a tequilla tour on Sunday! Any and all suggestions welcome, my friends!

I lived in Guadalajara for several years and have posted about many restaurants in the city.

The bad news is that there really aren't any options within walking distance of the Expo. It's in a sort of no-man's-land of hotels and residential areas. The Expo itself has a restaurant; if I recall correctly, it's the Camelia. Not good. And the Hilton has a restaurant that advertises Angus beef; I haven't been there and can't say yay or nay.

You need to know that the main meal of the day in Mexico, called comida, is eaten sometime between 2 and 4PM, not at night. Check your convention programming to see whether you'll have time for a break during those hours.

The really good news is that cab fare in Guadalajara is quite inexpensive, which means you'll be able to get to excellent restaurants and not spend your meal budget on taxis.

Up by UNIVA (bus 358) on Xochitl, almost where it meets Tepeyac, there is Menuderia de la Familia de Dona Jose, which is a menuderia that also has other good breakfast stuff. If you're not watching your weight they do yummy deep-fried quesadillas at lunch, and they've got about a dozen fillings to choose from. It's the busiest restaurant I ever found around Plaza del Sol. In the strip mall across and to the east from Plaza del Sol (the one with the Omnibus of Mexico office) there is another little restaurant with good breakfasts (they have a super-cheap set-price comida at lunch but I don't eat meat so I never tried it). You could also take the 358 to the taqueria on Tepeyac that is mentioned on this site quite frequently; I forget the intersection. La O is good and you can get there on one of the Turquesa busses that runs on Lopez Mateos- get off one or two stops after Centro Magno and you can walk from there. Another international place that my friends, family and I liked is Copa Cafe, which is on Chapultepec, on the west side of the street, about two blocks north of Vallarta. They have Mediterranean food (I like their pizzas with slow-roast tomatoes, and I had a good pasta with a creamy spinach sauce), funky music and friendly servers.

By the way, the area around Expo / Plaza del Sol is considered to be pretty dangerous at night. Unless you've got great street smarts I would recommend taking a bus or taxi to your destination, rather than walking. There are A LOT of prostitutes in that area at night (including a large number of transvestites), and while I'm sure they wouldn't harm a fly I wouldn't say the same of their customers.

PPS - There is a Soriana grocery store at Plaza del Sol if you want to pick up any typical Mexican food to bring home or to snack on in your hotel. Across Lopez Mateos from Plaza del Sol there is also a La Europa, which is an upscale liquor store that has some fancy food stuff that you could bring back as a gift. It's also a good place for tiny bottles of tequila (I don't know what that size is called!) if you want to bring home an assortment. I believe La Europa is on Moctezuma.

I stayed at Plaza del Sol for a week this summer and I walked around by myself even at night without a problem at all.

I would warn more so for the area around Hospicio Cabanas and the Central Market. I was threatend with a knife in the morning for my cell phone. My only warning is dont go alone in this area. You should be fine if you with someone.